An Arkansas man who confessed to fatally shooting his estranged wife, an emergency dispatcher, when she filed for divorce pleaded guilty and will spend the next 60 years behind bars.
According to court documents, Omar Pena-Romero, 24, entered a guilty plea on Nov. 18, more than one year after police apprehended him after he shot his wife, Cassandra Pena-Romero, 27, as she was leaving her job at the headquarters of Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (MEMS) in Little Rock. Moments before she was shot, Cassandra texted “SOS” to her colleagues inside. They found her bleeding in the parking lot, and she succumbed to her injuries four days later.
Related Coverage:
Before the shooting on Aug. 19, 2023, Cassandra — who shared a young son with Pena-Romero — had filed for divorce, claiming that her husband sexually assaulted her, according to court documents. She also claimed that earlier in the month, Pena-Romero voluntarily checked himself into a psychiatric ward for five days, where he exhibited signs that he wanted to harm himself and others. On Aug. 7, Cassandra stated that her husband showed her a suicide note he’d written.